I just got back from one of the most amazing trips of my life. Not only because of what I did, but because of the sheer amount of unexpected depth, meaning, and discovery that it contained...along with the ridiculous amount of fun I had in the midst of it all. I took the cheapest flight back, the red eye, and ended up on a plane that, to say the least of it all, had a movie screen behind the headrest of each seat. So, I watched the only free movie - a three hour long compilation of clips from the Civil Rights movement and speeches given by Martin Luther King as well as a few others. The movie, however, was titled King. I wouldn't have watched it if it hadn't been made up of 95% live clips from the movement, the other 5% orally given poems. I am proud that the movie was an option, and I am even more glad that I watched it. Martin Luther King Jr. was a remarkable man. A lot of people say that, but not many actually think about why that is. I mean just actually think about it for a few minutes, then you will get a glimpse of the magnitude of what he did, of who he was, of how he was.
Today, as much as I could while also keeping peace with the wild lot of four year olds, I sat on the Internet and researched nonviolence, nonviolent resistance, nonviolent resistance tactics, training (didn't know that existed), and MLK. There are two types of nonviolent resistance. Philosophical and tactical. Martin Luther King lived nonviolence. Philosophical nonviolents, such as MLK tried to love their enemies and tried to refrain from violence in all aspects of their lives. They took action to oppose injustice and used "love and redemptive suffering to win over their enemies." To live and preach nonviolence at the level that Martin Luther King did, literally in the middle of one of the most hectic and violent movements in America, leading people through it...not just doing it, but leading others, masses of people, is remarkable. To be that disciplined, intelligent, passionate, socially and politically aware, self aware, convicted, and faithful is something that is really attained by maybe one or two a century. Not even... Definitely not even...
Reading all this stuff is enlightening in so many ways. But to be honest it made me think about myself a lot. I am obviously no Martin Luther King Jr.... But can I be? Do I decide if that happens? Or had something already decided that it won't? Is a passion and determination like that something that's triggered, sculpted, found, given, or simply, in most cases I guess..just not there?
So from here I started to look at what and who influenced Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi and Jesus were two big ones. Big ones. And now MLK is up there with them. Both of these men, however, have very different stories, from each other and from MLK. Gandhi's experience was rough. I mean rough as in discouraging. Things just didn't seem to work. Failures after failures, but still with glimpses of success. He was unsuccessful in things from school, to political elections, to nonviolent protests, to his religious convictions...he was even plotted against by his own. However Gandhi kept at it. It took him years to gain "mastery over his sexual desires," encouraged greatly by his wife. He had to retreat to an old farm away from the masses for a few years at one point to escape false claims and corrupt plottings against him. He had to try and try again at opposing the same Bills, at first succeeding and then later that same success falling through. But between all these things he was constantly working himself up. From working as a writer for a political campaign, to embarrassing political leaders by writing letters to newspapers, a new form of protesting. He founded a newspaper that was a huge catalyst to his movements, later lead multiple strikes and marches, stood by his people and his principles, was thrown in jail a number of times, and was ultimately assassinated. As was Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi led his own country to freedom and changed the lives of millions in South Africa. His name was changed to mean "a great soul." With all that put in short, one thing that I noticed, after all my questions in response to watching and learning about MLK, was that Gandhi had a rough time. He kept going at it. Kept learning and trying, and simply doing what he thought needed to be done and was right, for himself and then his people. He wasn't the best at everything, and struggled a lot with himself and with the people surrounding him, even ones that seemed to be on the same page. But remember, Gandhi was a huge influence for MLK. Him and Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth disrupted the norm so much that he was killed by the state. Not assassinated, but forced to be put to death by the masses, saving them all the same. This idea, nonviolent resistance, the fight for justice and truth with action...it's part of the whole thing. Disrupting the masses while continuing to love the enemy - it's an art to be learned by the Master, who the ones we look up to, constantly quote, and almost seem to attribute these qualities to more, learned from - Jesus of Nazareth, God Himself.
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